A Dream for Hannah (Hannah's Heart 1)

by Jerry S. Eicher

  Hannah Miller

  P.S. You are a dream come true.

  The months passed quickly with a flurry of letters between Iowa and Montana.

  “If I see one more, I’ll throw it in the trash myself,” Betty teased when another arrived in the mail.

  “If you do…” Hannah said, glaring at her aunt and tearing open the letter.

  “Hopeless cases you two are,” Betty said and sighed deeply. “It’s going to be a long, long winter.”

  “Do you think Dad will let us marry in the spring?” Hannah asked.

  “How would I know that?” Betty said. “I’m not sure I would let you. Both of you could use a little more maturity.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Hannah said, her eyes quickly back on her letter. “He’s coming to Indiana this winter.”

  “Just one visit?”

  “Of course not,” Hannah replied, glowering. “He’s coming for a whole month, and I’m coming back to Montana next year again.”

  “Does it say that in the letter?” Betty asked. “Is Jake already deciding those things for you?”

  “Don’t be such a tease. Of course not. Mom said so in her last letter.”

  “Then no spring wedding.”

  “One can always hope,” Hannah said, “but I really don’t think so. Dad agrees with you on the maturing thing. Mom said so.”

  “At least we’re on the same page now,” Betty said triumphantly.

  Betty wasn’t surprised, though, when later that winter a wedding date was announced. A flurry of letters set the plans in motion, and then in early May, Hannah returned to Montana. To Betty’s delight, the couple decided they would, after all, be married in Montana.

  Jake visited in June and stayed for two weeks.

  The night before he left, he and Hannah rode back to the river. Memories of a less fortunate time returned to Hannah as they rode along the rushing water.

  “Do you remember another evening…when things didn’t turn out too well?” she asked.

  “I was trying to forget that,” Jake said with a somber smile.

  The mountains lay all around them as they rode quietly. Hannah’s heart beat faster as she savored this time alone with Jake away from the bustle of the house.

  “Come,” Jake said, motioning with his hand. He dismounted, keeping hold of the reins.

  He approached her horse as she swung slowly down. She faced him, so close she was certain he could hear her heart pounding.

  “Our wedding’s soon,” he said, and his fingers searched for her face in the falling dusk.

  She nodded, unable to speak. Never had she felt so close to him. He was a vision to behold against the backdrop of the strong majestic mountains—and he was all hers now. The pain of the past was just a memory.

  He brought both of his hands up to her face and came closer. She closed her eyes as he kissed her for the first time. She could scarcely breathe—so much joy filled the moment.

  “Jake,” she whispered and clung to him, “you really do want to marry me?”

  “Of course, silly,” he said, laughing and letting her go, “I do love you so.”

  They walked a bit farther, and then he said, “I have to leave tomorrow, and I want the memory of us here by the river to stay in my mind until I see you again—just the two of us, alive and so in love.”

  He kissed her again and then they saddled up to go back.

  “Jake,” Hannah said, “let’s have a good gallop on our way back.”

  “Okay, let’s do,” Jake agreed. They both let their horses have their head. Hannah bent low over the saddle to cut the wind, the tears stinging her eyes. Jake pulled ahead slightly and waved his arm over his head. So unlike an Amish boy, she thought as their horses kept neck to neck all the way back to the barn.

  As they led their horses to their stalls, Hannah felt her cheeks still burning like fire—but not from the wind. Jake unsaddled the horses and kissed Hannah again before he left. She watched him walk out the driveway, thinking she had never seen a more handsome boy in all her life.

  Jake returned two weeks before the wedding date, and they sat up half the night talking of their plans. Kathy and Roy arrived a week after that.

  “What that girl doesn’t put a man through,” Roy said, grumbling and settling himself onto Betty’s couch. Hannah heard him but took hope from the smile that played around the edges of his mouth.

  The morning of the wedding had finally arrived. Hannah came downstairs in her blue dress, which had been packed away since that fateful day when she last wore it. Her step was uncertain as she lowered herself from the final stair, not sure how Jake would react. From the expression on Jake’s face, as he stood by the window all dressed up in his new black shiny suit, she needn’t have worried.

  “Cast me over the odel,” he said, unable to take his eyes off of her.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  Kathy and Betty must have heard the couple because they then rushed into the room from the kitchen.

  “Don’t get used to it, Jake,” Betty teased. “She won’t always look this good.”

  “And neither will he,” Kathy added, thinking of her Roy. “Now get back upstairs until it’s time to go out. There will be people in and out of the house who might see you.”

  At five till nine, Jake walked out the door with Hannah following behind him. The two pairs of witnesses followed them across the yard to the barn where the ceremony would be held.

  In front of such a small group of people, Hannah could breathe with ease. With Jake beside her, it wasn’t nearly as hard to endure as that sad day back in Nappanee. Here in Montana only a few of the invited relatives could attend due to the distance involved. That also left only the home ministers to perform the ceremony.

  Minister Mose Chupp spoke first, and then Bishop Nisley gave the main sermon. Figuring it was her day, Hannah paid little attention to what they said as she kept a demure watch on Jake.

  “And now will this brother and sister please come forward if they still desire to be joined together as man and wife,” Bishop Nisley said at the conclusion of his sermon as he motioned with his hand.

  Jake rose first, and then Hannah followed him. She said “jah” at all the right places, unable to believe this was really happening and not just a dream.

  Then Bishop Nisley took both of their hands in his and smiled. She was certain it wasn’t a dream as she heard his voice proclaim, “And now I pronounce you man and wife by the will of God and the authority of the state of Montana.”

  He let go of their hands, and Hannah clung to Jake’s hand lest he disappear before her eyes. When he moved back to sit down, she followed. Someone from the back announced the last song number.

  As the music began for the last song, tears swelled in Hannah’s eyes. She dared to take a quick glance at Jake only to find tears streaking his face too. Then he turned to her and smiled.

  And he wasn’t a dream at all. He was very real.

  Discussion Questions

  1. Was Hannah wrong in becoming so starry-eyed when she first found the love poem?

  2. Is the pressure Hannah felt in grade school to have a boyfriend universal, or is it only a Western phenomenon?

  3. Are there better ways in which Hannah could have resisted Peter’s charms?

  4. What additional methods could Kathy and Roy have used to help Hannah overcome her guilt at Peter’s death?

  5. Have you ever considered a trip to Montana and its combination of big sky country and mountains?

  6. Hannah experienced emotional healing while working around Betty’s horses. Do you know of anyone in pain who could benefit from a similar experience?

  7. Jake struggles with his own hurts from being rejected, and it played a large part in his misunderstanding of Hannah. Are there better ways of dealing with hurts, so that overreactions can be avoided?

  8. What caused Hannah to believe that because she found a suitor unattractive, it was possibly closer to God’s will?
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br />   9. Betty makes a lot of assumptions about her sister Kathy’s desires for Hannah’s future. Was she just a poor communicator, or too wrapped up in her own world?

  10. Do you think Jake would have gotten over his bitterness and wanderings, if Hannah and Betty had not met him on the bus?

  About Jerry Eicher…

  As a boy, Jerry Eicher spent eight years in Honduras where his grandfather helped found an Amish community outreach. As an adult, Jerry taught for two terms in parochial Amish and Mennonite schools in Ohio and Illinois. He has been involved in church renewal for 14 years and has preached in churches and conducted weekend meetings of in-depth Bible teaching. Jerry lives with his wife, Tina, and their four children in Virginia.

  If you enjoyed A Dream for Hannah, be sure

  to look for the sequel, A Hope for Hannah.

  One

  from A Hope for Hannah

  Hannah Byler awoke with a start. She sat upright in bed and listened. The wind outside the small cabin stirred in the pine trees. The moon, already high in the sky when she and Jake went to bed, shone brightly through the log cabin window.

  Beside her she heard Jake’s deep, even breathing. She had grown accustomed to the comforting sound in the few short months since they’d been married. She laid her head back on the pillow. Perhaps it was just her imagination. There was no sound—nothing to indicate something might be wrong.

  But now her heart beat faster—and fearfully. Something was wrong—but what?

  “Jake,” she whispered, her hand gently shaking his shoulder. “Jake, vagh uff.”

  “What is it?” he asked groggily. He spoke louder than she wished he would at the moment.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered again and hoped he would get the hint. “I think there’s something outside.”

  Jake listened and sat up in bed with his arms braced on the mattress.

  “I don’t hear anything,” he said, a little quieter this time. “There are all kinds of noises in the mountains at night.”

  “I think something is outside,” she insisted.

  They both were silent a moment…waiting. Hannah half expected Jake to lower his head back to his pillow, tell her the fears were a bad dream, and go back to sleep. Instead he pushed back the covers and pivoted his feet to the floor.

  Just then a loud snuff outside the log wall stopped him. They both froze. Hannah didn’t recognize the sound. No animal she knew ever made such a noise.

  “It sounds like a pig,” Jake said, his voice low. “What are pigs doing out here at nighttime?”

  “It’s not a pig,” Hannah whispered back. No stray pig, even in the nighttime, could create such tension. “It’s something else.”

  “But what?” Jake asked, the sound coming again, seemingly right against the log wall.

  Hannah lay rigid, filled with an overpowering sense that something large and fierce stood outside.

  “I’m going to see.” Jake had made up his mind, and Hannah made no objection.

  Jake felt under the bed for his flashlight and then moved toward the door. Somehow Hannah found the courage to follow but stayed close to Jake.

  Their steps made the wooden floor creak, the only sound to be heard.

  Jake slowly pulled open the wooden front door, his flashlight piercing the darkness as he moved it slowly left and then right.

  “Nothing here,” he said quietly and then stepped outside.

  Hannah looked around Jake toward the edge of the porch. “It was around the corner,” she whispered.

  Jake walked slowly toward the corner of the house, but Hannah stayed on the porch near the front door.

  Jake stopped momentarily and then stepped around the corner of the house. Hannah could only see a low glow from the flashlight. In the distance, by the light of the moon, the misty line of the Cabinet Mountains accented the utter ruggedness of this country. During the day, the sight still thrilled her, but now that same view loomed dangerously.

  For the first time since they’d moved into the cabin after their wedding, Hannah wondered whether this place was a little too much for the two of them. Was a remote cabin, a mile off the main road, and up this dirt path into the foothills of the Cabinet Mountains, really what she wanted?

  “It’s a bear!” Jake’s voice came from around the corner. “Come take a look—quick—before he’s gone.”

  “Gone,” she whispered.

  “Come see!” Jake’s urgent voice came again.

  Again Hannah found courage from somewhere. She stepped around the corner of the house and let her gaze follow the beam of Jake’s flashlight, which now pierced the edge of the clearing around their cabin. At the end of the beam, a furry long-haired bear—as large as the one she’d seen once at the zoo—stood looking back at them, its raised head sniffing the air.

  “It’s a grizzly,” Jake said, excitement in his voice. “See its hump?”

  “Then why are we out here?” Hannah asked, nearly overcome with the urge to run, desperate for solid walls between her and this huge creature.

  “The men at the lumberyard said there aren’t many around,” Jake said in her ear. “Mostly black bears down in this area.”

  “Shouldn’t we be inside?” she asked the question another way, pulling on his arm. “It’s not going away.”

  “It will leave sooner if we stay in sight rather than go inside,” he told her, his light playing on the creature whose head was still in the air and turned in their direction.

  “Well, I’m going inside,” she said, her courage now wholly depleted.

  “It’s going,” Jake announced, so she paused. They watched, fascinated, as the great creature bobbed its head and disappeared into the woods.

  “It’s gone,” Jake said, a bit disappointed. “That was a grizzly.”

  They turned back to the cabin, Hannah following Jake’s lead. As they stepped onto the porch, Hannah considered their front door. Suddenly the solid slat door—so bulky before—now looked thin, an unlikely protection against the hulk that had just disappeared into the dark tree line.

  “What if it comes back?” she asked.

  “It won’t. It’s just passing through,” he assured her. “They don’t like humans. They’re wanderers anyway. It’ll probably not come this way again. Ever.”

  Not reassured, Hannah shut the door tightly behind them and pushed the latch firmly into place.

  “Bears hang around,” she told him. “This one could come back.”

  “Then we’ll deal with it. Maybe the game warden can help. I doubt it will return, though.” Jake was fast losing interest and ready for his bed again.

  Jake snuggled under the covers, pulling them tight up to his chin. “These are cold nights,” he commented. “Winter’s just around the corner. I have to get some sleep.”

  Hannah agreed and pulled her own covers up tight. Jake’s job on the logging crew involved hard manual labor that required a good night’s sleep. She didn’t begrudge him his desire for sleep.

  “I sure hope it doesn’t come back,” she said finally.

  “I doubt it will,” he muttered, but Hannah could tell he was already nearly asleep.

  To the sounds of Jake’s breathing, she lay awake and unable to stop her thoughts. Home, where she had grown up in Indiana, now seemed far away, a hazy blur against the fast pace of the past few months.

  What is Mom doing? she wondered. No doubt she’s comfortably asleep in their white two-story home, secure another night just like the night before and ready to face another day just like the day before.

  Thoughts of her earlier summers in Montana—tending to Aunt Betty’s riding stable—pushed into her mind. This country had seemed so glorious then, and she had dreamed of her return.

  First had come the wedding—she smiled in the darkness. After a flurry of letters and Jake’s visits as often as he could, Betty had received her wish for a wedding in Montana. Hannah’s mother realized it was for the best. After the plans for Hannah’s wedding to Sam Knepp ended
in a disaster back home in Indiana, there was no way either Roy or Kathy would go through that embarrassment again. Even Jake was in favor of the wedding in Montana—here where they had met.

  Their hearts were here in Montana now—close to the land and the small Amish community just off the shadow of the Cabinet Mountains. But now Hannah asked herself if living out here in the middle of nowhere was really for their best. Then she was thankful that at least she was with Jake—better here with Jake than anywhere else without him.

  But as she lay in the darkness unable to sleep, she found herself wishing for close neighbors. She wished she could get up now and walk to the front door, knowing that someone else lived within calling distance—or at least within running distance if it came to that. Now, with a bear around, a night wanderer with mischief on his mind, there was nowhere to go. She shuddered.

  She wondered if she could outrun a bear, even if a neighbor’s house stood close by. She pictured herself lifting her skirt for greater speed. How fast could bears run? Could they see well at night to scout out their prey?

  Hannah shivered in the darkness and listened to Jake’s even breathing, wondering how he could sleep after what they had just seen. A grizzly! Jake had been sure of it. A grizzly sniffing around their cabin, outside their bedroom wall. Why was Jake not more alarmed? He had even seemed fascinated…as if it didn’t bother him at all.

  She had always thought she was the courageous one, the one who wanted adventure. After all, she had come out to Montana on her own that first summer. The mountains had fascinated her, drawn her in, and given her strength. Now tonight those same mountains had turned on her and given her a bear for a gift—a grizzly. Even the stately pine trees, with their whispers that soothed her before, now seemed to talk of dark things she knew nothing about, things too awful to say out loud.